USA > New York > The history of the late province of New-York, from its discovery, to the appointment of Governor Colden, in 1762. Vol. I > Part 23
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QUEENS
County is more extensive, and equally well settled : the principal towns are Jamaica, Hempstead, Flushing, New- town, and Oysterbay. Hempstead plain is a large, level, VOL. I .- 41
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dry, champaign heath, about sixteen miles long and six or seven wide, a common land belonging to the towns of Oys- terbay and Hempstead. The inhabitants are divided into Dutch and English presbyterians, episcopalians, and qua- kers.
There are but two episcopal missionaries in this county, one settled at Jamaica, and the other at Hempstead ; and each of them receives £60 annually, levied upon all the inhabitants.
SUFFOLK
Includes all the eastern part of Long Island, Shelter Island, Fisher's Island, Plumb Island, and the Isle of White. This large county has been long settled, and, except one small episcopal congregation, consists entirely of English presbyte- rians. Its principal towns are Huntington, Smithtown, Brookhaven, Southampton, Southhold, and Easthampton. The farmers are for the most part graziers, and living very remote from New-York, a great part of their produce is carried to markets in Boston and Rhode-Island. The Indians, who were formerly numerous on this island, are now become very inconsiderable. Those that remain, generally bind themselves servants to the English. The whale fishery, on the south side of the island, has declined of late years, through the scarcity of whales, and is now almost entirely neglected.
The Elizabeth islands, Nantucket, Martin's vineyard, &c. and Pemy Quid, which anciently formed Duke's and the county of Cornwal, are now under the jurisdiction of the Massachuset's Bay. Sir William Phips demanded them of governor Fletcher, in February 1692-3, not long after the new charter to that province; but the government here was then of opinion, that, that colony was not entitled to any islands westward of Nantucket.
An estimate of the comparative wealth of our counties, may be formed from any of our assessments. In a £10,000
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part of a £45,000 tax laid in 1755, the proportions settled by an act of assembly stood thus :--
New-York.
£3,332
Albany
1,060
King's
484
Queen's,
1,000
Suffolk
860
Richmond.
.304
West-Chester
1,000
Ulster
860
Dutchess
800
Orange
300
£10,000
CHAPTER II.
OF THE INHABITANTS.
THIS province is not so populous as some have imagined. Scarce a third part of it is under cultivation. The colony of Connecticut, which is vastly inferior to this in its ex- tent, contains, according to a late authentic enquiry, above 133,000 inhabitants, and has a militia of 27,000 men ; but the militia of New-York, according to the general estimate, does not exceed 18,000. The whole number of souls is computed at 100,000.
Many have been the discouragements to the settlement of this colony. The French and Indian irruptions, to which we have always been exposed, have driven many families into New-Jersey. At home, the British acts for the trans- portation of felons, have brought all the American colonies into discredit with the industrious and honest poor, both in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The mischiev-
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ous tendency of those laws was shown in a late paper, which it may not be improper to lay before the reader .*
"It is too well known that, in pursuance of divers acts of parliament, great numbers of fellows who have forfeited their lives to the public, for the most atrocious crimes, are annually transported from home to these plantations. Very surprising one would think, that thieves, burglars, pickpock- ets, and cut-purses, and a herd of the most flagitious banditti upon earth, should be sent as agreeable companions to us ! That the supreme legislature did intend a transportation to America, for a punishment of these villains, I verily believe : but so great is the mistake, that confident I am, they are thereby, on the contrary, highly rewarded. For what, in God's name, can be more agreeable to a penurious wretch, driven, through necessity, to seek a livelihood by breaking of houses, and robbing upon the king's highway, than to be saved from the halter, redeemed from the stench of a gaol and transported, passage free, into a country, where, being unknown, no man can reproach him with his crimes ; where labour is high, a little of which will maintain him ; and where all his expenses will be moderate and low. There is scarce a thief in England, that would not rather be transport- ed than hanged. Life in any condition, but that of extreme misery, will be preferred to death. As long, therefore, as there remains this wide door of escape, the number of thieves and robbers at home will perpetually multiply, and their depredations be incessantly reiterated.
But the acts were intended, for the better peopling the colo- nies. And will thieves and murderers be conducive to that end ? What advantage can we reap from a colony of unrestrainable renegadoes ? will they exalt the glory of the * crown ? or rather, will not the dignity of the most illustrious monarch in the world be sullied by a province of subjects so lawless, detestable, and ignominious ? Can agriculture
* The Independent Reflector.
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be promoted, when the wild boar of the forest breaks down our hedges and pulls up our vines ? Will trade flourish, or manu- factures be encouraged, where property is made the spoil of such who are too idle to work, and wicked enough to mur- der and steal ?
" Besides, are we not subjects of the same king, with the people of England ; members of the same body politic, and therefore entitled to equal privileges with them ? If so, how injurious does it seem to free one part of the dominions from the plagues of mankind, and cast them upon another ? should a law be proposed to take the poor of one parish, and billet them upon another, would not all the world, but the parish to be relieved, exclaim against such a project, as iniquitous and absurd ? Should the numberless villains of London and Westminster be suffered to escape from their prisons, to range at large and depredate any other part of the kingdom, would not every man join with the sufferers, and condemn the measure as hard and unreasonable ? And . though the hardships upon us, are indeed not equal to those, yet the miseries that flow from laws, by no means intended to prejudice us, are too heavy, not to be felt. But the colonies must be peopled. Agreed : and will the transportation acts ever have that tendency? No; they work the contrary way, and counteract their own design. We want people 'tis true, but not villains, ready at any time, encouraged by impunity, and habituated upon the slightest occasions, to cut a man's throat for a small part of his property. The delights of such company is a noble inducement, indeed, to the honest poor, to convey themselves into a strange country. Amidst all our plenty, they will have enough to exercise their virtues, and stand in no need of the association of such as will prey upon their property, and gorge themselves with the blood of the adventurers. They came over in search of happiness ; rather than starve will live any where, and would be glad to be excused from so afflicting an antepart of the torments of hell. In reality, sir, these very laws, though otherwise designed, have turned out, in the end, the most
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effectual expedients that the art of man could have contri- ved, to prevent the settlement of these remote parts of the king's dominions. They have actually taken away almost every encouragement to so laudable a design. I appeal to facts. The body of the English are struck with terror at the thought of coming over to us, not because they have a vast ocean to cross, or leave behind them their friends; or that the country is new and uncultivated : but from the shocking ideas, the mind must necessarily form, of the company of inhuman savages, and the more terrible herd of exiled malefactors. There are thousands of honest men, labouring in Europe, at four pence a day, starving in spite of all their efforts, a dead weight to the respective parishes to which they belong ; who, without any other qualifications than common sense, health, and strength, might accumulate estates among us, as many have done already. These, and not the others, are the men that should be sent over for the better peopling the plantations. Great Britain and Ireland, in their present circumstances, are overstocked with them; and he who would immortalize himself, for a lover of mankind, should concert a scheme for the transportation of the indus- triously honest abroad, and the immediate punishment of rogues and plunderers at home. The pale-faced, half-clad, meagre, and starved skeletons, that are seen in every village of those kingdoms, call loudly for the patriot's generous aid. The plantations too, would thank him for his assistance, in obtaining the repeal of those laws which, though otherwise intended by the legislature, have so unhappily proved injurious to his own country, and ruinous to us. It is not long since a bill passed the commons, for the employment of such criminals in his majesty's docks, as should merit the gallows. The design was good. It is consistent with sound policy, that all those, who have forfeited their liberty and lives to their country, should be compelled to labour the residue of their days in its service. But the scheme was bad, and wisely was the bill rejected by the lords, for this only reason, that it had a natural tendency
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to discredit the king's yards : the consequences of which must have been prejudicial to the whole nation. Just so ought we to reason in the present case, and we should then soon be brought to conclude, that though peopling the colonies, which was the laudable motive of the legislature, be expedi- ent to the public, abrogating the transportation laws must be equally necessary."
The bigotry and tyranny of some of our governors, to- gether with the great extent of their grants, may also be considered among the discouragements against the full settlement of the province. Most of these gentlemen coming over with no other view than to raise their own fortunes, issued extravagant patents, charged with small quit-rents, to such as were able to serve them in the assembly; and these patentees, being generally men of estates, have rated their lands so exorbitantly high, that very few poor persons could either purchase or lease them. Add to all these, that the New-England planters have always been disaffected to the Dutch ; nor was there, after the surrender, any foreign accession from the Netherlands. The province being thus poorly inhabited, the price of labour became so enormously enhanced, that we have been constrained to import negroes from Africa, who are employed in all kinds of servitude and trades.
English is the most prevailing language amongst us, but not a little corrupted by the Dutch dialect, which is still so much used in some counties, that the sheriffs find it difficult to obtain persons, sufficiently acquainted with the English tongue, to serve as jurors in the courts of law.
The manners of the people differ as well as their lan- guage. In Suffolk and Queen's county, the first settlers of which were either natives of England, or the immediate descendants of such as begun the plantations in the eastern colonies, their customs are similar to those prevailing in the English counties from whence they originally sprang. In the city of New-York, through our intercourse with the Europeans, we follow the London fashions ; though, by the
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time we adopt them, they become disused in England. Our affluence, during the late war, introduced a degree of luxury in tables, dress, and furniture, with which we were before unacquainted. But still we are not so gay a people as our neighbours in Boston, and several of the southern colonies. The Dutch counties, in some measure, follow the example of New-York, but still retain many modes peculiar to the Hollanders.
The city of New-York consists principally of merchants, shopkeepers, and tradesmen, who sustain the reputation of honest, punctual, and fair dealers. With respect to riches, there is not so great an inequality amongst us as is common in Boston and some other places. Every man of industry and integrity has it in his power to live well, and many are the instances of persons who came here distressed by their poverty, who now enjoy easy and plentiful fortunes. ,
New-York is one of the most social places on the conti- nent. The men collect themselves into weekly evening clubs. The ladies, in winter, are frequently entertained either at concerts of music or assemblies, and make a very good appearance. They are comely and dress well, and scarce any of them have distorted shapes. Tinctured with a Dutch education, they manage their families with be- coming parsimony, good providence, and singular neatness. The practice of extravagant gaming, common to the fashion- able part of the fair sex, in some places, is a vice with which my countrywomen cannot justly be charged. There is nothing they so generally neglect as reading, and indeed all the arts for the improvement of the mind, in which, I confess, we have set them the example. They are modest, temperate, and charitable; naturally sprightly, sensible, and good-humoured; and, by the helps of a more elevated educa- tion, would possess all the accomplishments desirable in the sex. Our schools are in the lowest order-the instructors want instruction; and, through a long shameful neglect of all the arts and sciences, our common speech is extremely cor- rupt, and the evidences of a bad taste, both as to thought
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and language, are visible in all our proceedings, public and private.
The people, both in town and country, are sober, indus- trious, and hospitable, though intent upon gain. The richer sort keep very plentiful tables, abounding with great varieties of flesh, fish, fowl, and all kinds of vegetables. The com- mon drinks are beer, cider, weak punch, and Madeira wine. For dessert, we have fruits in vast plenty, of different kinds and various species.
Gentlemen of estates rarely reside in the country, and hence few or no experiments have yet been made in agri- culture. The farms being large, our husbandmen, for that reason, have little recourse to art for manuring and improving their lands ; but it is said, that nature has furnished us with sufficient helps, whenever necessity calls us to use them. It is much owing to the disproportion between the number of our inhabitants, and the vast tracts remaining still to be settled, that we have not, as yet, entered upon scarce any other manufactures than such as are indispensably necessary for our home convenience. Felt-making, which is perhaps the most natural of any we could fall upon, was begun some years ago, and hats were exported to the West-Indies with great success, till lately prohibited by an act of parliament.
The inhabitants of this colony are in general healthy and robust, taller but shorter lived than Europeans, and, both with respect to their minds and bodies, arrive sooner to an age of maturity. Breathing a serene, dry air, they are more sprightly in their natural tempers than the people of England, and hence instances of suicide are here very un- common. The history of our diseases belongs to a profession with which I am very little acquainted. Few physicians amongst us are eminent for their skill. Quacks abound like locusts in Egypt, and too many have recommended them- selves to a full practice and profitable subsistence. This is the less to be wondered at, as the profession is under no kind of regulation. Loud as the call is, to our shame be it remembered, we have no law to protect, the lives of the VOL. 1-42.
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king's subjects from the malpractice of pretenders. Any man at his pleasure sets up for physician, apothecary, and chirurgeon. No candidates are either examined or licensed, or even sworn to fair practice .* The natural history of this province would of itself furnish a small volume; and, there- fore, I leave this also to such as have capacity and leisure to make useful observations, in that curious and entertaining branch of natural philosophy.
CHAPTER III.
OF OUR TRADE.
THE situation of New-York, with respect to foreign mar- kets, for reasons elsewhere assigned, is to be preferred to any of our colonies. It lies in the centre of the British planta- tions on the continent, has at all times a short easy access to the ocean, and commands almost the whole trade of Connec- ticut and New-Jersey, two fertile and well-cultivated colonies. The projection of Cape Cod into the Atlantic, renders the navigation from the former to Boston, at some seasons, extremely perilous; and sometimes the coasters are driven off, and compelled to winter in the West-Indies. But the conveyance to New-York, from the eastward, through the sound, is short and unexposed to such dangers. Philadel- phia receives as little advantage from New-Jersey, as Boston from Connecticut, because the only rivers which roll through that province disembogue not many miles from the very city of New-York. Several attempts have been made to raise Perth Amboy into a trading port, but hitherto it has proved to be an unfeasible project. New-York, all things
* The necessity of regulating the practice of physic, and a plan for that pur- pose, were strongly recommended by the author of the Independent Reflector, in 1753, when the city of New-York alone boasted the honour of having above forty gentlemen of that faculty.
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considered, has a much better situation, and, were it other- wise, the city is become too rich and considerable to be eclipsed by any other town in its neighbourhood.
Our merchants are compared to a hive of bees, who industriously gather honey for others-Non vobis mellificatis apes. The profits of our trade centre chiefly in Great Bri- tain and for that reason, methinks, among others, we ought always to receive the generous aid and protection of our mother country. In our traffic with other places, the balance is almost constantly in our favour. Our exports to the West- Indies are bread, peas, rye-meal, Indian corn, apples, onions, boards, staves, horses, sheep, butter, cheese, pickled oysters, beef, and pork. Flour is also a main article, of which there is shipped about 80,000 barrels per annum. To preserve the credit of this important branch of our staple, we have a good law, appointing officers to inspect and brand every cask before its exportation. The returns are chiefly rum, sugar, and molasses, except cash from Curacoa, and when mules, from the Spanish Main, are ordered to Jamaica, and the Wind- . ward Islands, which are generally exchanged for their natu- 'al produce, for we receive but little cash from our own islands. The balance against them would be much more in our favour, if the indulgence to our sugar colonies did not enable them to sell their produce at a higher rate than either the Dutch or French islands.
The Spaniards commonly contract for provisions with merchants in this and the colony of Pennsylvania, very much to the advantage both of the contractors and the public, because the returns are wholly in cash. Our wheat, flour, Indian corn, and lumber, shipped to Lisbon and Madeira, balance the Madeira wine imported here.
The logwood trade to the bay of Honduras is very consi- derable, and was pushed by our merchants with great bold- ness in the most dangerous times. The exportation of flax seed to Ireland is of late very much increased. Between the 9th of December, 1755, and the 23d of February follow- ing, we shipped off 12,528 hogsheads. In return for this
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article, linens are imported, and bills of exchange drawn in favour of England, to pay for the dry goods we purchase there. Our logwood is remitted to the English merchants for the same purpose.
The fur trade, though very much impaired by the French wiles and encroachments, ought not to be passed over in silence .* The building of Oswego has conduced, more than any thing else, to the preservation of this trade. Peltry of all kinds is purchased with rum, ammunition, blankets, strouds and wampum, or conque-shell bugles. The French fur trade at Albany was carried on till the summer 1755, by the Caghnuaga proselytes; and, in return for their peltry, they received Spanish pieces of eight, and some other articles which the French want, to complete their assortment of Indian goods. For the savages. prefer the English strouds to theirs, and the French found it their interest to purchase them of us, and transport them to the western Indians on the lakes Erie, Huron, and at the strait of Misilimakinac.
Our importation of dry goods from England is so vastly great, that we are obliged to betake ourselves to all possible arts to make remittances to the British merchants. It is for this purpose we import cotton from St. Thomas's and Surinam ; lime-juice and Nicaragua wood from Curacoa ; and logwood from the bay, &c. and yet it drains us of all the silver and gold we can collect. It is computed, that the annual amount of the goods purchased by this colony in Great Britain, is in value not less than £100,000 sterling ; and the sum would be much greater if a stop was put to all clandestine trade. England is, doubtless, entitled to all our superfluities ; because our general interests are closely con- nected, and her navy is our principal defence. On this account, the trade with Hamburgh and Holland for duck, chequered linen, oznabrigs, cordage, and tea, is certainly,
* It is computed, that formerly, we exported 150 hogsheads of beaver and other fine furs per annum, and 200 hogsheads of Indian-dressed deer-skins, besides those carried from Albany into New-England. Skins undressed are usually shipped to Holland.
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upon the whole, impolitic and unreasonable; how much soever it may conduce to advance the interest of a few mer- chants, or this particular colony.
By what measures this contraband trade may be effectu- ally obstructed is hard to determine, though it well deserves the attention of a British parliament. Increasing the num- ber of custom-house officers, will be a remedy worse than the disease. Their salaries would be an additional charge upon the public; for if we argue from their conduct, we ought not to presume upon their fidelity. The exclusive right of the East-India company to import tea, while the colonies pur- chase it of foreigners 30 per cent. cheaper, must be very prejudicial to the nation. Our people, both in town and country, are shamefully gone into the habit of tea-drinking; and it is supposed we consume of this commodity in value near £10,000 sterling per annum.
Some are of opinion that the fishery of sturgeons, which abound in Hudson's river, might be improved to the great advantage of the colony ; and that, if proper measures were concerted, much profit would arise from ship-building and naval stores. It is certain we have timber in vast plenty, oak, white and black pines, fir, locust, red and white mul- berry, and cedar; and, perhaps, there is no soil on the globe fitter for the production of hemp than the lowlands in the county of Albany. To what I have already said concerning iron ore, a necessary article, I shall add an extract from the Independent Reflector.
" It is generally believed that this province abounds with a variety of minerals. Of iron in particular, we have such plenty, as to be excelled by no country in the world of equal extent. It is a metal of intrinsic value beyond any other, and preferable to the purest gold. The former is converted into numberless forms, for as many indispensable uses ; the latter for its portableness and scarcity, is only fit for a me- dium of trade : but iron is a branch of it, and I am persuaded will, one time or other, be one of the most valuable articles of our commerce. Our annual exports to Boston, Rhode-
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Island and Connecticut, and, since the late act of parlia- ment, to England, are far from being inconsiderable. The bodies of iron ore in the northern parts of this province are so many, their quality so good, and their situation so con- venient, in respect to wood, water, hearth-stone, proper fluxes and carriage, for furnaces, bloomeries, and forges, that with a little attention we might very soon rival the Swedes in the produce of this article. If any American attempts in iron works have proved abortive, and disappointed their undertakers, it is not to be imputed either to the qua- lity of the ore, or a defect of conveniences. The want of more workmen, and the villany of those we generally have, are the only causes to which we must attribute such miscar- riages. No man, who has been concerned in them, will disagree with me, if I assert, that from the founder of the furnace, to the meanest banksman or jobber, they are usu- ally low, profligate, drunken, and faithless. And yet, under all the innumerable disadvantages of such instruments, very large estates have, in this way, been raised in some of our colonies. Our success, therefore, in the iron manufactory, is obstructed and discouraged by the want of workmen, and the high price of labour, its necessary consequence, and by these alone : but 'tis our happiness, that such only being the cause, the means of redress are entirely in our own hands. Nothing more is wanting to open a vast fund of riches to the province, in the branch of trade, than the importation of foreigners. If our merchants and landed gentlemen could be brought to a coalition in this design, their private interests would not be better advanced by it, than the public emolu- ment; the latter in particular, would thereby vastly improve their lands, increase the number and raise the rents of their tenants. And I cannot but think, that if those gentlemen who are too inactive to engage in such an enterprise, would only be at the pains of drawing up full representations of their advantages for iron works, and of publishing them from time to time in Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Sweden; the province would soon be supplied with a sufficient num-
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